AFV Club Stryker ESV

[longlance67]

Hiya all, finally got the first licks of paint on this kit finally done

focusing on the RWS and using this picture as my reference



In past Stryker builds I always seemed to paint up the Stryker in too dark a shade of green so for this build I will try to the tone more accurate to the real machine. The RWS and Mk.19 were undercoated in flat black.



The Basecoat for RWS was Vallejo Reflective Green 70.890 and the smoke dischargers caps in Citadel Deathworld Forest





For scratches and chipping, a mixture of Vallejo German Uniform 70.920 and Reflective in the ratio of 2:1. For exposed primer Citadel Dryad Bark was used and Vallejo Oily Steel to pick out were the steel was exposed on the edges were high friction would occur



For the gun sights I used Citadel Warlock Bronze



before the Mk.19 was glued in place, the RWS got a light wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade








thats all for now


thanks for looking



Shane.

[longlance67]

Hiya All,

hope your weekends are going well gents

have a small progress update to share with you, the efforts of a quite morning

the rear hatch




working on the large basket that will hang over the rear plate of the Styker, its slow going as there some annoying pin marks needing to be filled before and can get working on it proper,


till the next time lads


thanks



Shane

[Gav0909]

Looking great Shane. The RWS looks really nice, the chipping is good, very easy to overdo it on these things. But you have gotten a good level there. I guess you might do this once the entire thing is complete, but some dust pigment brushed into the corners and recesses of the RWS would make it really pop. Again look at your references, in Afghan, Iraq etc these things are coated in a permanent film of dust, with some build up in the corners etc.

Good work!

[jamesdivall64]

Hi All,

time to for my first build log on ISM
Normally I am world war two armor and infantry fan but my guilty pleasure is the Strkyer APC family man are they sexy machines. So I thought it would be a good place to start by adding the engineer squad vehicle (ESV) with surface mine plow by AFV Club to my small by growing collection

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This is my first AFV kit of the Strkyer having built two of Trumpeters offering (the RV & MEV) I'm looking forward to seeing how this one builds up in comparison. Construction begins with the bow plate and the mounting bracket for the plow, this was a fiddly process as the locater pins for the brackets are shallow and fragile but after a little messy glue job i got it in place (had great fun cleaning the glue marks after)


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then it was on to the suspension which went smoothly though it was a bit fiddly at times, had to be very careful not to snap anything as i went, but this what i got done in a evenings work

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next session onto the upper hull

till then folks,

thanks,

Shane

[longlance67]

Gav - cheers buddy for the kind words, as for the weathering, I'm gonna depict the vehicle on exercise in the U.S rather than in deployment,my reasons for doing this is simple...Slat armor. I havent worked the courage to attempt to try slat yet lol. So there wont too much in terms of dust but it will be nice and muddy But I'll wait till every thing is on before I start weathering


build update:

got the basket assembled, these early morning rises are proving to be most useful



to mount the basket to the rear plate (part P16) you will have to remove two bolt heads which are mirrored on each side of the hatch opening








thats it for now lads, till the next morning


thanks


Shane.

[Nige201980]

great work Shane the gun looks fantastic mate

[longlance67]

Nige, thanks mate, its a fun build and my mojo has been stoked up again to work on it


Build Update:

got another bit of work done this morning, working on the last parts of the hull fittings before I move onto the mammoth process of the mine blade

been working on the jerry can brackets on the rear of the vehicle, these are fiddly little monster, and have some small injection marks but these will be hidden once the cans are placed in the brackets





this one was a little fiddly but after some swearing I got it to work








thanks for looking



Shane

[HWGuderian23]

Wow! The level of detail on this kit is absolutely outstanding ! I'm not sure if I ever would get all this tiny parts together without a damage !
Excellent work on this AFV Shane - I'm really impressed mate!

[JayCub]

Shane your a master modeler Sir, and i have enjoyed looking and reading the build log, now where in Galway did you say you lived looking forward to coming back and having another look.

Tom

[longlance67]

Wow! The level of detail on this kit is absolutely outstanding ! I'm not sure if I ever would get all this tiny parts together without a damage !
Excellent work on this AFV Shane - I'm really impressed mate!

thank for the kinds words mate, I'd be lying if said I've never broken any parts on my previous Styker builds or more in the keeping of just about every model I've ever built...having a part fly into the grasps of the carpet monster. which I've already done with this kit with one of the headlights but lucky I had one lying around from a trumpeter styker so we are still in business

Shane your a master modeler Sir, and i have enjoyed looking and reading the build log, now where in Galway did you say you lived looking forward to coming back and having another look.

Tom

Hey Tom, I'm no master, there's so many a finer modeler working pieces of utter magic compared to my clumsy builds....but I really appreciate your support my friend

now to where I live in Galway...well I don't want to make it too easy for you lol hahah

thanks buddy



shane.

[longlance67]

Hiya All, hope this finds you well

Just to show this build still lives...though its complexity is slowly draining my soul

one such sub assembly is the steps 37 - 39 which deals with the marker stakes and their projectors used for marking paths in mine fields as the vehicle advances. the part of this assembly that caused me the most problems and kinda took the wind out of my sails were the marker stakes themselves made up of six parts, and requiring painting before mounting within their housings. And as coen often says on his channel Armor modelers dont really like painting things before mounting them to the model...which is very true



each rack of stacks is required to be painted in a white/black stripe which i first started doing to each individually which quickly became a soul destroying exercise. After doing the first batch like this, I cheat with the second batch only painted the front and back racks in full and only the leading edges of the rest. The thing is you cant even tell which is done differently lol





everything got a fine dusting of Mig pigments before i fit them in their housing,


thanks for looking, Im gonna need your support get this beast finish so keep it coming it makes a very big difference


thanks


Shane

[schweinhund227]

Nice Stuff,

It looks amazing

[DC87]

Cor blimey Shane, great work on such intricate parts

Keep this build rumbling along, it's very enjoyable to watch the progress

[HWGuderian23]

Nice progress Shane !
Glad you keep this build up mate and agree with Dan: it's very enjoyable to watch it

[longlance67]

thank you Norm, such praise from a modeler as talented as your is praise indeed thank you

Dan, really happy your enjoying the build buddy, it has been a bit of trying project at times, more down to the large part count which has a tendency to sap the energy out of me at times lol

Markus, thank you for your support my friend stay tuned should be starting the surface blade soon, just wait till you see the instruction assemblies for it lol hahah

thanks lads,


Shane

[Andyman23]

This is unbelievable. I was thinking about picking up this kit and this is absolutely an inspiration. Cannot wait to see the final product.

[longlance67]

Andy, thanks mate, really hope you enjoy this build and gives you idea whats in the kit

thanks mate



Shane

[Coen]

Shane, they look awesome buddy. So does the rest of this build.
Slow but sure means accurate.... Usually.
This is a wicked looking piece dude. I know that I'd Love to see it done... Even at the expense of your soul haha.

[longlance67]

Shane, they look awesome buddy. So does the rest of this build.
Slow but sure means accurate.... Usually.
This is a wicked looking piece dude. I know that I'd Love to see it done... Even at the expense of your soul haha.

Thanks Mike, well I'm half ginger so I've got half a soul any way lol



cheers



shane

[Coen]

I'm only about 1/4 ginger myself so I have no real soul to speak of.
Haha

[longlance67]

I'm only about 1/4 ginger myself so I have no real soul to speak of.
Haha

Us gingers need to stick together its a big bad brunette world out there hahahaha

[Coen]

aint that the truth!!!

[longlance67]

aint that the truth!!!

Just to make it worse I'm left handed too hahaha there's no hope for me

[Coen]

Oh Oh... Don't tell Lee... he'll call ya a weirdo.

[longlance67]

Oh Oh... Don't tell Lee... he'll call ya a weirdo.

Maybe I should send him some lefty leaflets showing lefty's arnt scary but misunderstood

on a side note I moved everything back into the shed so I have space again to really get cracking on this build


thanks


Shane

[Coen]

Are you having a sudden warm spell?
I thought that the shed was unheated?

[longlance67]

Are you having a sudden warm spell?
I thought that the shed was unheated?

nope your correct it is unheated, i hate a crappy heater for a little warmth and a few layers complete with hat and scarf hahaha

what we do for our hobby


Shane

[Coen]

You sir are a brave man... if I tried that here I'd last about 10 minutes... Mostly because I couldn't use me glues, paints, or paints. They'd be frozen solid and completely toast.
It gets as low as -5C right now... in about two weeks we'll be seeing -15 on a regular basis. In 4 weeks -25C will be my friend.

[longlance67]

You sir are a brave man... if I tried that here I'd last about 10 minutes... Mostly because I couldn't use me glues, paints, or paints. They'd be frozen solid and completely toast.
It gets as low as -5C right now... in about two weeks we'll be seeing -15 on a regular basis. In 4 weeks -25C will be my friend.

Luckily we are having a very mild winter this year thankfully, this time two yrs ago it was -12 which is very cold for us. I dont know how you guys can weather such freezes here it is a bearable 6C lol

Just spent a few hours at the bench wrapped up in several layers to stay off the cold, oh the lengths we go to for our hobby

speaking of crazy things I've started working on the surface blade sections just have a look at the instructions at assemble P theres nine of them



It took two hours just to get two of them done







I hate to say that this build is becoming a bit of lemon, but its such a badass looking vehicle so I shall hang in there


Thanks


Shane

[Coen]

Two Hours!!!! Holy crap!!!! Lets hope that there aren't too many more of those kinds of assemblies eh?

[longlance67]

Two Hours!!!! Holy crap!!!! Lets hope that there aren't too many more of those kinds of assemblies eh?

Including the two I've gotten done there's 20 such assemblies

[Coen]

Oh boy... I can see how mojo would leak away on this one.

[longlance67]

Oh boy... I can see how mojo would leak away on this one.

AFV club have a nasty habit of over engineering very small assemblies, I know Dragon are bad for it too but least DML's plastic isnt as brittle as AFV's which makes removing some of these fine parts a nerve shattering experience lol Its just one of those builds that never seems to pick up speed ya know

But why move your stuff in the shed? Is there absolutely no room for you in the house? Poor fella I feel ya!

Unfortunately not, the little workspace I had set up was grand for working on figures but was far too small for a vehicle as big as the ESV so i opted to brave the cold instead lol


cheers


Shane

[Rob]

Goodness me, that's an incredible model! just read this from page one. You must be looking forward to a time when all those sub assemblies are just a memory! Keep up the good work

[longlance67]

Goodness me, that's an incredible model! just read this from page one. You must be looking forward to a time when all those sub assemblies are just a memory! Keep up the good work

Thanks Rob with any luck it wont be too long before paint


cheers


Shane

[Coen]

I've build two AFV Club Churchills Shane... I know exactly what you mean about the excessively small break downs of parts.

[longlance67]

I've build two AFV Club Churchills Shane... I know exactly what you mean about the excessively small break downs of parts.

It came really put me off working on the model some times, but I am looking to build a few of their Chruchills in the future would you recommend me them ?

[Coen]

Oh yes!!
They are all great pieces of engineering. They just have a tonne of tiny wheels that are tricky to install.
The kits themselves are great.
I can't remember which kits exactly it was but I can look it up in the morning.

[longlance67]

Thanks Coen, I really want to build one from King force in North Africa and maybe a later Chruchie with a black dog hessan turret update would look really nice indeed


got working on another assembly to take my mind off the mind numbing process of plough blades

so got the dis-chargers for the marker stakes all assembled without any fuss





thanks for looking mates


Shane

[longlance67]

Hiya All,


just a quick progress report, managed to crack those fiddly plough blade assemblies now I'm churning out three a hour not too bad considering it took two hours to do one before haha

also Tamiya extra thin...where have you been all my life its amazing stuff hahaha


a photo update to follow soon


hope your festive season is going well without dramas as the trees go up


thanks


Shane.

[Andyman23]

Looks awesome Shane. All those small parts are making my head hurt just looking at them lol

[longlance67]

Looks awesome Shane. All those small parts are making my head hurt just looking at them lol

This model has driven me to the edge of insanity on more than one occasion but funny how once I switched glues everything got less fiddly as now have greater control. but still this kit can a pig when it wants to be, its not that its a bad kit, its just over engineered



thanks mate


Shane

[Coen]

I've used about every type of glue that there is Shane ant TET is the best that I've ever used. It's pretty much all that I used for kit construction. I have have a few specials that I need for very specific things, but TET is my work horse.

[longlance67]

I've used about every type of glue that there is Shane ant TET is the best that I've ever used. It's pretty much all that I used for kit construction. I have have a few specials that I need for very specific things, but TET is my work horse.

I'm beginning to adopt it as my workhorse to, its a great job all together, now I know why all you guys were telling me to get my hands on it all months ago

thanks Mike



Shane

[longlance67]

Hiya All,
Hope you all are doing well and haven't been swamped under in fairy lights

got a lot done in the last few days, and learned a few things alone the way, thankfully I got into the grove for building the individual, multiple part mine plough blades. Anyone who may seen any of my past builds on different sites would be aware that my carpet monster never goes hungry as I always tend to lose parts, and with some many small parts it was likely I would end losing parts, but then the penny dropped, I rolled out some blu-tac and secured down any parts that would otherwise go missing or flying into the open jaws of the carpet monster. White tac however would have been better as blue tac leaves a little bit of residue but can be carefully removed though
After a week of building here they all are



Was thinking about the question that Dan (DC87) asked about tools, and there was something I though of and often over looked, but think its so important for any modeler and its not really a tool as per say. I think that is organisation and planning out your builds and keeping everything accessible, this was especially the case in this build and definitely with the plough blades as mixing them up would be a right paint



to finish off the night of building, I also started on a display base for the Stryker, had an old piece of scrap MDF lying around from yrs ago, it was scared and had paint blobs on it from when I must have used it as a paint palette for some reason, but it caught my eye. Gave it a sanding with heavy sand paper, beveled the edges and gave it a spray from a can (wore a mask for all of this). Am very happy with the effect it created



now I'm wondering should I gloss or satin coat it after another coat of spray, what do you guys think ?


thanks

Shane

[HWGuderian23]

That's many parts indeed - no wonder that the one or other part get lost sometimes !
But as I can see you're a very well organized scale modeller Mr. Longlance that there's no reason for concern my friend !
I've seen some guys who painted a vast number of individual parts on their models separately (in different colors each) and I can't understand how they could be able to keep track of all this stuff ! I would sink into total chaos myself !
But anyways ... looking cool so far Shane and I'm curious to see your progress mate ...

P.S.: I'm not exactly sure if it's right but to seal the base I would satin coat it.

[Coen]

I just finished the base for Blue Thunder about 5 minutes ago, it's made of a piece of MDF, I base coated it in burnt umber arclyic paint and left it. Of course it has a diorama on top of it so there wasn't a big need to get all fancy. I don't want the viewer's eye distracted by the edge of the base.
MDF is difficult to gloss coat anyway... it's like a sponge and it takes multiple coats and tonnes of paint to get a good look to it.

[longlance67]

That's many parts indeed - no wonder that the one or other part get lost sometimes !
But as I can see you're a very well organized scale modeller Mr. Longlance that there's no reason for concern my friend !
I've seen some guys who painted a vast number of individual parts on their models separately (in different colors each) and I can't understand how they could be able to keep track of all this stuff ! I would sink into total chaos myself !
But anyways ... looking cool so far Shane and I'm curious to see your progress mate ...

P.S.: I'm not exactly sure if it's right but to seal the base I would satin coat it.

I really dont know people can build like that without theirs heads exploding hahahah

thanks Markus

I just finished the base for Blue Thunder about 5 minutes ago, it's made of a piece of MDF, I base coated it in burnt umber arclyic paint and left it. Of course it has a diorama on top of it so there wasn't a big need to get all fancy. I don't want the viewer's eye distracted by the edge of the base.
MDF is difficult to gloss coat anyway... it's like a sponge and it takes multiple coats and tonnes of paint to get a good look to it.

Looking forward to seeing the finished dio mate, your right about the base and not having it distract the viewers eye so I wont mount anything to it until I see how it works


thanks Micheal



Shane

[JayCub]

brilliant build Shane, now i know why i prefer WWII tanks less parts you know your addicted to modeling when you look at the fairy lights on the tree and start thinking those LED's would look great on my tank..
looking forward to the diorama also, but i will wait and see what the next install is on the Stryker.

[longlance67]

brilliant build Shane, now i know why i prefer WWII tanks less parts you know your addicted to modeling when you look at the fairy lights on the tree and start thinking those LED's would look great on my tank..
looking forward to the diorama also, but i will wait and see what the next install is on the Stryker.

Jay, thanks mate, lighting a model has always something I've to try to yrs, and I've come across tiny LED's and fiber optics that sci fi modelers use for lighting star trek models, just wish I had the courage to try it on a topic or light a building on a dio, though their wont be a dio for this stryker, I've begun research and collecting parts for a major Diorama project but I'm keeping it under wraps for now

as for the next stage for the Stryker is add the anti-slip texture to the upper surfaces and get working on the support brackets / arms for the plough and then some wiring. So there's still a bit of work yet to do

thanks mate


Shane